When the car has more than 150000km, one per year or every 10000km as much every 150000km. Like in my 9000 V6 or the 9-5 2.3t of my father, or now my new USA version, ’92 900 convertible.

Here for example Saab recomends as much to do the oil changes every 30000km, but this is the maximum, it is recomended to do the oil changes before 20000-25000km, it depends of the usage of the car. Here is more common to use the car for road-city driving, and the best is to do the oil change in lower intervals.

I can say, that I do a sports drive, and onces per year and as much 15000km I change the oil. Always Mobil1. In that in mind I am sure that the engine won’t have any big problem in terms of lubrication.

regards

However (deep breath) –

– the oil life monitor that is used on modern Saab engines is a rather sophisticated software algorithm that uses information based on engine revolutions, operating temperature, startup temperature, drive time and other aspects to optimize the time (not really distance) between oil changes.

Think of it this way – you are changing your oil because of (what)? Not entirely because it gets ‘dirty’ (it is designed to retain contaminates) – the additive package wears out over time and oil loses the ability to do its job.

With that in mind, you can look at this example – a driver that does frequent short trip driving, with no highway driving might find that have to change their oil in LESS THAN the common 3000 mile oil change interval. A driver that drives under what might be considered ‘optimum’ conditions by the system may find that they can go up to 10,000 miles before an oil change. All vehicles recommend an oil change at least once a year.

Drivers in the USA (and all others) – perk up and pay attention to this. The oil life monitor in any GM vehicle has no idea what type of oil is being put into an engine, the ‘software’ assumes that the proper type (standard) and viscosity of oil is being put into the engine so that is what is basis its calculations on. If you decide to use a different type of oil (viscosity or brand) – than the oil life monitors opinion becomes somewhat invalid.

Saab vehicles sold in the USA (and other markets of course) require oil that meets the GM-LL-A-025 (European) oil standard. Some research on my part has found that very few brands oil meet that standard in the United States. Most GM engines – such as the high feature 3.6L V6 used in many new models are factory filled with Mobile One that meets the GM6094M standard or the GM 4718M (Corvette spec) which varies that of the European standard.

The GM-LL-A-025 standard is bit different in terms of how long the oil should be able to ‘resist’ breakdown and the Saab version of the high feature V6 engine (2.8L Turbo) requires oil that meets that standard. From what I have learned only Mobile 1 0W-40 meets those requirements and it is in print on the specification sheet for that oil. Saab recommends this oil be used in all of its engines from what I understand.

So – one of the most important considerations you should be paying attention to is that you are using the proper type of oil for your engine. And from there you should consider a change interval based on your driving style (or follow your oil life monitor if available).

Funny this topic should come up. I just had the dealer do my first oil change in my 9-3 at 7100 miles (11,000 kilometers). My oil life monitor showed about 8% left but they were ‘allowed’ to do it with that much life left (Saab pays for those first few oil changes). I generally do plenty of highway driving and have taken several long trips in my car so – the data seems to support the oil life monitors decision. The car had not used any oil at all in this time frame.

Hard to break the 3000 mile oil change ‘habit’ but given cost factors and longer manufacturer warranties on new(er) vehicle – one has to consider the facts.

I change oil every 3000 miles, because the last thing I need to do is push my car. If I try to push my car, I will literally be pushing my car down the road because it will die.

Coming soon…

And for the record, I now change mine every 5,000 kms, in both the 900 and 9000 we have here at home. The Viggen gets the same treatment when it’s running. We use good quality stuff in the 900 and 9000, but top shelf stuff in the Viggen.

I know its more expensive to do those oil changes every 15000-20000km, but its the best to avoid any possible problems related to the carbon particles and big problems with the engine and lubrication.

good quality oil……..well Mobil1 is a good example.

At the dealer I saw some examples of this. For example, from the factory the cars came with a special oil for the running in of the car(as says the manual about 5000km), the is recommended as much when the car has 10000km to do the first oil change.

One customer bought a 2004 9-5 Aero, did in less than one year, about 40000km, and you can imagine how….with no oil changes, and the car arrived towed to the dealer with one piston blown. Like this example, many others………and here in Spain with Diesels, that is worst, the lower reliability of those engines in all brands, the people that drive them like sports cars, and with the people that do oil changes over 30000km, because the brand says the car has a “long life oil”.

regards

As far as I can tell, it was a confluence of issues:

*the PCV problem
*the overheated oil pan next to the catalytic converter problem
…have already been mentioned. I’ve also heard the following as well

*claims the car could go 10k between oil changes, since that’s what GM would pay for. and that’s exactly what people did (yeah yeah “severe service” but the fact is most people don’t think of themselves in that category–and to be fair, GM has enormous experience with engine oil life monitoring…they just didn’t think the Saab would be any different–no other GM vehicle has had significant sludge issues)
*dealers not using full synthetic A3/B3 oils on those every 10k changes, using semi-synthetic instead

I’ve also heard someone explain that there was a change that reduced the space between the top of the engine head and the valves? Something like that. At any rate, there’s still a lot more to say about this issue.

the sludge is basically caused by problems in the ventillation kit of the oil gases and so.

if you do a good mantainance of the engine, with good quality oil and oil change every 15000-20000km as much, then there is no problem.

Now my father leave the 99 9-5 2.3t with over 250000km with no problems with the engine. He had the common issues of the ’99 9-5, trionic/throttle body, pixels of the screen and so…

regards